Trust Me

Leonard's less than stellar second caper novel, with its Detroit setting, wacky characters and elaborate schemes that misfire, may strike Elmore Leonard fans as too derivative of his father's work. When two thieves, Bobby and Lloyd, break into the house of Karen Delaney, “a knockout” with “red hair and creamy white skin,” she manages to enlist the pair in a plot to rob her bookmaker ex-boyfriend, Samir Fakir, who has $300,000 of hers that he kept at the time he threw her out. The robbery goes off, but not without fatal hitches. Karen must scramble out of harm's way as Bobby and Lloyd, a bunch of Fakir's eager debt collectors, grasping relatives, Arab hit men and a stubborn ex-cop who's also an ex-con pursue her and the money. While Leonard (Quiver ) has a ways to go before he approaches his father's high standard, he keeps Karen and the action rolling along nicely enough with occasional chuckles and mild surprises. (Apr.)